Dear Mom and Everyone,
(I posted a touching video of Tyler and his cousin Allison meeting at the tempe at the bottom of this page)
Wow, this last week and a half has been amazing!! I am not even sure what the highlights were really, but I will try to describe some of the experiences as best as I can with just words. On Saturday, Esteban called me and told me Allison was going to the temple this Wednesday again!! I was sooo pumped I couldn’t believe it. I called my President and he gave us permission to change our P-Day and go and that is why I am emailing today, and I got to see Allison today! It was a little stressful because we couldn't really communicate and I was just going on the one phone call and the hope she would be there. We also barely got there on time, and there were 130 missionaries in the temple! I saw her for a second in the chapel of the temple, and then they said they had to split our session and the CCM session up, so ours was 30 minutes later. Nonetheless, it all worked out, after my session I walked outside and surprised Allison, she was crying because she had thought I already left or something, but it was really fun and cool the see eachother. I also passed down the FMP (Family Missionary Pistachio). It is a very special pistachio that only missionaries or returned missionaries of our family can have. I am so grateful for the opportunity to see her, it was kind of like Christmas Eve night last night, I had a hard time sleeping because I was so anxious and excited to see her, and also it was my birthday today! I am especially greatful for my companion, Esteban, and my mission President who helped make it possible, and especially God who continues to work miracles in my life each and every day. He really does love and bless his missionaries so much. Also Esteban told me that he wants to make me a birthday cake so we will have to find a P-Day to go over there soon! My birthday has been so special and awesome already!
So last Monday, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings!!! That made me so happy, I remember walking around the corner and seeing the BWW sign… I almost broke out in tears of joy, I was finally home. Okay it wasn’t that emotional, but it was pretty darn awesome, we got some pictures with the buffalo wild wings sign, and got seated with our menus. The Buffalo Wild Wing’s mascot was even there too so we all got pictures with him! The food was delicious, just how I remembered it, but they didn’t take my American gift card smh. Oh well, it made me so happy being there, and I hope I can go back a few more times on my mission! I decided I will have to do the Blazin Challenge at the end of my mission to see how tough my mouth got. I also found out there is a six flags here in Mexico City… But we don’t have permission to go lol.
Anyways, this whole week we were really just focused on preparing for the baptism. We did end up contacting and visiting a bunch of people, but it was hard to juggle everything this week. I did end up getting the Frank Family’s birthday package!! That was super exciting, I really had no idea what was in it, and it was sure a surprise opening it! The splat ball and the Minion’s coloring book are sweet, and a bunch of other little funny gifts which made me really happy. I even got Massaman Curry!!! YESSSS. On Wednesday, we had a big zone meeting with a few zones around us and the Mission President. It was an awesome meeting, and also I got to meet up with Elder Boyer, Metcalf, and Jorgenson from the CCM! I actually miss the CCM lol, I was looking at pictures the other night, and it was so much fun there. Somewhere I won’t ever be again as a missionary. Elder Boyer and I found out our areas border, and next cycle we will have to do some more things together on P-Day! Also, I got my family’s package at the meeting. It was huge, everyone said it was the biggest package they had ever seen and it really made me happy. I protected it like it was my baby on the way home, and safely arrived. I am sooo excited to have a blender now, I have been making smoothies every morning (peanut butter-banana, guyaba-banana) And I hope to go shopping soon to try out some other smoothies! Also the Electric Razor is sweet, it really “shaves” a lot of time in the morning. I have downloaded a ton of conference talks, especially Elder Holland talks on my flashdrive, so for companionship study, Elder Johnson and I have been listening to sweet conference talks, and snacking on my pistachios/popcorn in my fam’s package! The Conference Talk- Safety for the Soul by Elder Holland gets us so pumped up everytime we listen and we want to share it with our investigators too. I really think it might be the greatest conference talk of all time.
My first baptism was amazing. Wendy was super excited and prepared. The morning of her baptism, we went over to the church to clean and fill the font. To our surprise, we found that the whole church was without water… ANYWHERE! Well, quoting Elder Johnson, “I guess it wouldn´t be a baptism if there wasn´t something that went wrong!” We felt like we should get on our knees and pray for help that this will work out and the baptism will go smoothly. Johnson also had this same problem earlier on his mission, him and his companion prayed, expecting it to immediately get fixed, but they both got the same idea- buckets. So for the next 3 hours they filled the baptismal font with buckets. This time, we were a little more fortunate though, we didn´t get the prompting of buckets, but rather just to call our bishop and stake leaders to help us figure it out lol. So we made a few phone calls and got some help at the church. They ordered a huge truck, basically a fire truck, to come fill the empty tank with a hose just a few hours before the baptism! It was close, but we ended up filling the font in time. (Plus it was pretty fun climbing down into the water tank and taking pictures haha). So we spent the whole day making sure everything went smoothly, getting baptismal clothes, printing out programs, and making all of the phone calls, I guess that is just how baptism days are, and it was well worth it. Everyone showed up, to font was hot (enough… not really hot), and we were good to go! It was really awesome from the speakers, the musical numbers us missionaries did, and then I got to do the baptism! I was actually really nervous, but being all dressed in white made me feel sooo happy and so clean. We took some pictures before, and then we went down into the font and I baptized her! I ended up getting her all the way under the first time, saying the write words, and pronouncing her name right, but I guess it wouldn´t really be my first baptism if I didn´t do something wrong… When I was baptizing her, I hit her head on the faucet… ouch. I felt really bad and kind of embarrassed but she is fine, and everyone had a good laugh about it. The important part is that the Spirit was there, and that it was. I remember just feeling so content and peaceful and I remembered D &C 18:15 “[If ye shall] bring save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy”. It really was true, I was just so happy, it felt as though every single day of hard work I had been doing, since the CCM, has paid off. “How great will be your joy if ye shall bring many souls unto me!” (D&C 18:16). Here is to one baptism, and many more to come! Also, Wendy says she wants to serve a mission, so she could be on a mission the same time as me and all of her converts could basically be my converts! That would be amazing, we will keep working with her to strengthen her testimony.
Well, we found out M has more problems than we thought, so that was kind of disappointing and she was really excited for baptism, but it will still be a while. Also, being realistic, we have probably 5 investigators who can for sure get baptized next cycle if we focus on them and get them to come to church. Having a lot of baptism dates was good, and we will still try to get more each week, but we decided to really just focus on helping the ones who are ready and excited for baptism- E, F, her daughter V, A, and her husband, M. We will keep trying to work with our others like F and his family, some of the people in Las Vias, but they aren’t quite as willing and prepared as some of the other people. Nonetheless, my training has been awesome and I can’t believe it is almost over! Time sure has been flying lately, it is crazy, I almost am at 4 months! Pretty soon I will be at 6, skyping my family again, and an experienced missionary! My Spanish is coming along awesome! I am ready for a latino companion, or whoever I am supposed to get, and am excited to see what the future holds, although I would still love to stay with Elder Johnson and this area for as long as the Lord will allow me. My taco count is up to 45 now!
Funny or interesting things that happened this week. While we have been contacting houses, Elder Johnson and I have been playing the "Word Game" where we just give eachother words, and we have to use that word while the contact the people. It has made it really fun and exciting to contact, and really funny too. Some of the funniest ones have been pizza, where I told someone that pizza makes me really happy, and so does the gospel and I want to share this happiness with you. Also I gave Elder Johnson oatmeal, he started by saying, we have a question, do you like oatmeal? She suspiciously said no.... and then Elder Johnson said, well how do you know? She said because I have tasted it! He explained to her that she has to taste or try out or message and we promise her that she will like it lol. Some of the other funny ones were tire, flower, and wall. Also, Elder Russel M. Nelson is coming to Mexico so one Sunday we are going to the temple again to see him! This last Sunday was kind of interesting, the bishops daughter, an 8 year old girl was our sacrament meeting pianist. Yes! 8 years old! I never realized how much needed a calling like the ward pianist would be down here, no one plays piano!
Well I hope you guys are all well, it sure feels great being 19! Thank you guys so much for all the packages, letters, love, and support, it means so much to me. Whenever I feel sad or like no one really cares about me down here, I just think of all my awesome family and friends back home cheering me on, and it motivates me a lot. Love and miss you guys!!!
-Elder Clark
No comments:
Post a Comment